Author: Dilshod Karimov, Cultural Heritage Specialist and Travel Guide

I used to think medieval observatories were just stone towers with monks squinting at stars. Then I stood in the trench at Ulugbek’

The Navoi Theater in Samarkand doesn’t look like much from certain angles, honestly. I remember standing outside it last spring, squinting at the

The thing about Kalta Minor is that it shouldn’t work as a monument, but it does. Standing in Khiva’s Itchan Kala—the walled inner city that

I used to think puppet museums were just dusty storage rooms with glass cases and bad lighting. Then I walked into the Bukhara Puppet Museum on a Tuesday

Khiva hits different when you’re watching your wallet. I used to think budget travel meant sacrificing everything that made a place special—the food

The madrasah sits there, quietly. Muhammad Rahim Khan II built this Islamic school in the late 19th century—specifically between 1871 and 1876, though

I used to think cultural festivals were all the same—predictable performances, vendor booths selling the same mass-produced trinkets, maybe some decent

I used to think carpets were just, you know, carpets. Then I walked into the Bukhara Carpet Museum on a Tuesday afternoon in late September, jet-lagged

I used to think urban legends were just campfire tales, but Khiva changed that for me. Walk through the narrow streets of this ancient Silk Road city at

I used to think silk weaving was just about pretty fabric. Then I spent an afternoon in a cramped workshop in Bukhara’s old city, watching a master